Music Theory Games Day! — Liz Kohl Pianist & Yogi

This past Saturday was my studio's first "Music Theory Games Day"! We had a lot of fun learning, playing games, & meeting other students.

Our first group had 5 students in the lower levels & the second group had 8 students in the higher levels. I was honored to have two of my students who are in high school serve & participate as assistants!

We played several Alphabet Card variations. It's fun to have something that transitions really well from a Prep A student all the way up to the highest levels. We start with Steps/Skips, but can move up to Interval skipping (2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, etc.) to make it a challenge for older students. These games are helpful for becoming comfortable with the musical alphabet forwards and backwards, as well as learning how to skip letter names. Try playing this with your kids and legitimately try to beat them - hopefully they'll get to a point (if they aren't already) when they CAN beat you :)

I was so excited to use a HUGE Keyboard and Staff mat (see below) that my fellow, teacher & friend Danielle gave me this year! We played some note finding games like "Parachutes" (you let a note fall and then identify it) and kids got to walk up the keyboard and experience saying all the note names.

There's something about creating & collaborating that is so much fun! Above, we played some rhythm guessing games & each student composed an individual rhythm (they are each standing behind theirs in the video). Then, we worked together to choose the order and made a longer, rhythm composition! Here we are saying it in rhythm words:

Throughout each session of the games - there was an ongoing, silly game to sneak a clothespin onto other students' backs. Each clothespin had a letter name and the student with the most clothespins on their back at the end got to choose an order and play their composition.

I hope everyone enjoyed this fun day of musical learning! I felt like I was bursting with more games to play and the time truly flew by! On top of these games, all of my students got to hear my high school assistants share a piece - one on violin, one on piano. I hope that this was inspirational for all of them!

Musically Yours,

Miss Liz & Henrietta the Cat